Vellenaux eBook

The first scene of the bloody drama they proposed
to enact, to satisfy their devilish thirst for the
blood of the unfortunates, who had thus fallen into
their hands, was opened by a tall, burly ruffian bending
over, seizing one of the children, hurling it into
the air, and yelling with an awful imprecation while
so doing, that he would wager a gold mohur to five
rupees, that he could, with his tulwa, strike off the
child’s right arm at the elbow without touching
any other part of the body. This was accepted
at once by half-a-dozen voices; the wretch immediately
raised his tulwa and, as the infant descended, made
a sharp, quick, upper cut, and ere it reached the
ground its little arm was disjointed, as though by
the knife of an experienced surgeon. A groan of
horror burst from the lips of the agonized parents,
and a convulsive shudder ran through the remainder
of the unhappy party; but this past unheeded by their
captors, being drowned by the yells of fiendish delight
and approval that broke forth from the throats of these
hell hounds, as the mutilated body of the child lay
wreathing in agony at their feet, absorbing for the
moment all other feeling. “I will double
the stakes,” cried another, “that I take
off the head of a second of these young imps close
to the shoulder without making wound or scar on any
other part.” “Done, and done again!”
shouted several voices, throwing up their weapons
in the air, and re-catching them again, so delighted
were they at the idea of another spectacle so much
in unison with their blood-thirsty and relentless
passions. A powerful ruffian now dismounted,
and catching up a second babe, a pretty little thing
scarcely two years old, hurled it with his utmost strength
high into the air. On gaining its greatest altitude,
it turned completely, and was descending, head downwards.
When within six feet of the ground, the brutal villain,
with one lightning stroke of his tulwa, severed the
head from its shoulders, amid the shouts and gesticulations
of the assembled miscreants. By some, the wretch
was pronounced a winner, but on examining the body,
the skin of one shoulder was found to be grazed or
cut. Many maintained it was done by the sword;
others asserted that it was caused by falling on a
stone or some such substance. The dispute ran
high, and possible might have come to blows, but for
the interference of another of the party, who appeared
to be a sort of leader among them, shouting out “Come!
No more of this fooling; too much time has been already
wasted on this Tumahsha. Give the cursed feringees
a volley from your carbines, loot the garries, and
then make off with all speed, or the cursed Kaffirs
may get wind of the affair and follow in our track.”